The Record: The Port Authority and bridges

Santiago Calatrava, who designed the World Trade Center transportation hub, was paid for unused designs for the Goethals and Bayonne bridges and retains the copyright to the plans.

THIS TIME it is not that bridge, the one named after our nation's first president. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has more explaining to do, but now it is how it came to pay Santiago Calatrava $500,000 for unsolicited designs for the Goethals and Bayonne bridges.

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg reported Sunday that Port Authority Commissioners Anthony Sartor and David Steiner privately pressured Port Authority staff to incorporate Calatrava designs into the rebuilding plans for both bridges. The designs ultimately were rejected but that did not save the Port Authority from writing a check for a half-million dollars to the star architect behind the obscenely expensive PATH station under construction at the World Trade Center.

Sartor, who has since resigned from the Port Authority board, was heavily involved in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. The engineering firm he leads has ties to companies working with Calatrava at the new PATH station. But it appears Steiner was the stronger advocate for Calatrava having a piece of the two bridge projects; Steiner hand-delivered Calatrava's plan for the Goethals Bridge to Port Authority agency staff.

Neither commissioner should have been involved in the day-to-day operations of the Port Authority or working behind the scenes to bring a favored candidate a prominent commission. This is but another sign of how the Port Authority has been allowed to operate as a shadow government agency controlled by politically connected titans who played fast and loose with the public's money.

It cannot be coincidence that the fee ultimately paid to Calatrava is the maximum amount allowed not requiring a public vote by the agency's commissioners. And for $500,000 what did the Port Authority receive? It paid for the right only to view Calatrava's designs and compare them to Port Authority designs. That's it.

The Port Authority's romance with the famed architect has not come cheap. The WTC PATH station has ballooned in costs and features such impractical design flourishes as white marble subway platforms. This latest Calatrava revelation is even more troubling because commissioners were trying to pressure the Port Authority to ignore agency policy to favor their choice architect.

There are multiple criminal and legislative investigations under way that no doubt will expose the underbelly of the Port Authority. The closure of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge was just the tip of the iceberg: Conflicts of interests, shoddy vote keeping, a lack of transparency and now this — commissioners trying to circumvent agency policy to bring their chosen architect into the rebuilding of the Bayonne and Goethals bridges.

Perhaps this is all a game to some commissioners, a game like Monopoly, the theme for the cake for Steiner's 80th birthday. Except the pieces on this board are not Steiner's or any commissioners'. These are projects dependent on the public's money.

As more hidden agendas of the Port Authority come to light, we do not know if anyone will go to jail, as in Monopoly. But Santiago Calatrava did better than pass "Go" and collect $200; he got $500,000.